The Go-Between (The Nilaruna Cycles Book 1) (9 page)

I lumber down the stone tunnel and a bit further down the mountain
path. There’s a place where I tore several trees out of the ground so I have a
bit of a launching pad.

When I reach it, I unfurl my
wings and shake them out. The ground trembles. Being a mighty dragon used to
awe me. I can rip the roots of a great oak right out of the earth. I can set
the forest aflame. I can cause an earthquake that sets even the villagers of
Dabani running for cover.

My dragon-ness means little now.
Less. I want to be a man for Nilaruna.

I flap my wings and launch myself
skyward.

Flight has always cleared my
head. It’s something I’ve never taken for granted, this ability that I only
share with birds and my few fellow dragons. It is the best part of being
Protector, and has lessened some of my loneliness, if only for the time I’m in
the air.

I circle over my mountain home.
Everything appears as it should, but I still feel an uneasiness, as though
something is out of kilter in the world. Most of that is my worry for Nilaruna,
but some of it is also the events she relayed to me. Over twenty Go-Betweens
dead. And their service to me is the only connection between them.

Someone wants to invade Dabani,
and they need me out of the way.

Someone is going to use magic to
do it, and they’ve spent cycles ensuring they will not have to fight others
with magic.

I fly north, to the passage
through the Fangs to the rest of the kingdom. I can see the passage from the south,
but I cannot fly over it to the other side. There’s not a physical barrier, but
as I get close, the wind literally pushes me back. I could hover here for
hours, flying forward, drifting back, flying forward again…who made these
infernal rules? Damn it, Shiva, if you’d only let me go a league further north,
I could see what’s happening. I could see if an army is amassing, if they are
stockpiling weapons, if they…

A thought occurs to me. A scary
thought.

If I wanted to conquer Dabani and
Indrapur, there’s only one thing I’d need: a way to get troops through the
pass.

Any troops coming on foot would
be detected immediately, by me.

So I’d need another way.

I’d need to fly.

Who can fly? Birds, but there are
none native to our kingdom that can carry a man.

Or dragons.

I stop beating myself against the
invisible wall and turn back south. I need to visit the thunder of blue dragons
that share the mountain with me. They could be in danger.

I haven’t seen any of them for
almost a moon, a few weeks before Nili arrived.

They may already be gone.

I fly faster.

“We should
not visit during a meal,” Manoj says as we make our way from the inn to the
Nandal home. “If we cannot stomach the food, we’ll be stuck there.”

I don’t respond. It’s almost
midday, and we have a mission, and I don’t give two figs about a meal. Faaris
wanted to take a nap and rest for a bit, so here we are.

“Make way for the prince!” Faaris
yells again, and a child with a mangy dog jumps out of the road before Faaris
tramples him.

The roads here should not be
called roads — they’re more like strolling lanes. We should walk, but
Manoj insisted that a prince should be on horseback. Dear heavens, twice now,
Faaris’s horse has defecated on my horse’s nose.

From all this yelling of Faaris’s,
we’ve amassed a decent following. Villagers and children and dogs have formed a
parade behind us, and people line the road to both sides, making our passage
even more difficult. Someone throws roses from my right, and the thorny stem
hits me square in the forehead. When I put my finger to the spot, a drop of
blood stains my fingertip.

I think of the assassin and the
poison.

And I realize we’re not safe
here.

“Faaris,” I yell at him, and he
twists in his saddle to see me. “Fast, now. Enough of this.”

Faaris nods and kicks at the
flanks of his horse. “Make way! Make way!”

And Manoj and I follow.

***

It’s well past the noon meal when we reach our destination. Manoj and
Faaris clear out the villagers and order them home while I attempt to brush the
road dust from my clothing.

Manoj steps up to the door and
looks at me. I nod.

He knocks.

I fight to slow my galloping
heart.

My first instinct was to run back to Maja. Let the prince and the
kingdom fend for themselves! I’ve found happiness and peace for the first time
as a woman. I cannot just give that up.

But will I be happy if the
kingdom falls? If my parents are killed or enslaved? I do not care about the
rest of the village — they have not cared about me since my accident
— but still. Is it right to act the way they do?

I cannot imagine that a prince
will treat me better than the butcher does. The prince’s values are the
kingdom’s values. Untouchables are the lowest of the low, and the prince only
wants me because I will save him. That does not guarantee he will treat me
well.

And what of love? Love is the
greatest force in the world. I cannot hurt Maja, and I will not betray him. Not
for anything.

But if I do not comply with the
prince’s wishes, he has nothing to lose. He could kill me or my parents. He
could go after Maja. He could set the whole village on fire. And why not? Those
are threats that would probably move me.

Probably.

I do not think there is a way out
of this.

But I will do it only if I can
protect Maja in the bargain.

Only for Maja.

For love.

The
door opens.

A portly man of some fifty cycles
waves us in. “Yes, yes, there’s a bit of a wait. Take a seat on the bench and
I’ll get to you as fast as I can.”

He turns to go, but Manoj calls
him back. “Sir, you will bow in the presence of royalty! I introduce Prince
Kai, heir to the throne of Jatani, Commander of the Royal Navy, and Governor of
the Free States.”

Ravi Nandal turns back and
narrows his eyes. “There’s a bit of a wait, even for a prince. I’m mending a
broken bone.”

Manoj looks at me.

“Carry on, sir. I am Prince Kai,
and I do not require your services as a healer. See to our ailing citizen, and
then we can conduct business.”

“Business, you say?”

“I wish to speak with your daughter,
Nilaruna. I know she is the Go-Between. Is she here, or is she attending to her
duties with the Protector?”

Ravi frowns. “Nilaruna is not fit
for visitors. She is not allowed to see anyone. I’m sorry you’ve wasted your
time, sir.”

“I know of Nilaruna’s appearance,
and I must insist on meeting with her anyway. You can bring her to me, or I can
go in and find her. Choose.”

Ravi shakes his head. “I meant no
disrespect, my prince. My daughter is an abomination. I am trying to spare
you.”

I feel my anger heat my cheeks.
What kind of father calls his daughter an abomination?

I push forward through the door.
Ravi backs up.

“Bring her,” I say.

Ravi gives me a shallow bow,
turns, and disappears into a back room.

Faaris pats my shoulder. “That
was—”

“Don’t say it. We’ll discuss it
later.”

And a small creature covered by a
veil comes out of the back room and bows low before me.

“Nilaruna Nandal?” I ask.

She nods.

“I am Prince Kai, and these are
my companions, Faaris, Captain of the Guard, and Manoj, my Chief Advisor.”

She bows to both of them, and
they bow back.

“Is there someplace we may speak
privately?”

She nods again.

“You may speak, Nilaruna,” I say.

“We may use the back garden,” she
says in a gravelly voice. “Follow me.”

“Wait,” Manoj says. “Where is
your chaperone?”

“I have none,” she says. “There’s
no need to protect an untouchable. Or were you thinking of assaulting me?”

Manoj steps back. “Dear heavens,
woman, we thought nothing of the kind! It is unseemly for an unmarried woman to
be alone with a man, let alone three men.”

“Again I say I’m an untouchable,
sir,” she says. “Have you not heard of us?”

Manoj looks at me with his mouth
open. I almost laugh, but that wouldn’t be princely.

“Let us follow you to the
garden,” I say. “Your virtue is quite safe with us, no matter what your
status.”

“This way,” she says, and we
follow her through the back door.

***

“This is lovely,” Faaris says, walking ahead of us through the garden
paths. “You must employ several gardeners.”

“Not really,” Nilaruna says. “There’s
only me. I tend these herbs for my father.”

“It rivals the kitchen gardens of
the palace,” Faaris says. “You have quite a gift.”

Leave it to Faaris to flirt with
anyone in a skirt two minutes after meeting them.

Nilaruna laughs, a throaty,
catching thing. “I spend hours here each day. It better look good.”

I catch the eyes of my friends
and wave them off. They wander away from us.

“Nilaruna, you must find it odd,
a prince coming to see you. This is a complicated matter.” I point to a bench
next to us. “Let us sit down.”

We sit with as much space between
us as possible.

“I know why you’re here,” she
says. “Shiva told me this morning.”

I’m taken aback at this, but I
don’t know why. Shiva always does things his own way.

“Do you know about the Go-Betweens?”
she asks me.

“I know of their purpose and
their duties,” I say. “Someone will need to take your place.”

“No,” she says. “That’s not what
I meant. Did you know that the last twenty-two Go-Betweens have been murdered?”

My eyebrows hit my hairline. “No,
I didn’t know that. Have they caught the murderer?”

“No. And someone set a spell upon
me, so that I would stab Maja when I first met him. Luckily, Maja was able to
subdue me and remove the spell.”

“Magic? Someone is doing magic?”

Nilaruna nods.

“Do you know who?”

“No, but I’d only been in contact
with four people in the time I believe the spell was laid — my parents,
the high priest, and his trainee at the temple, a boy of ten.”

I process this. “Someone either
wants the Protector dead and out of the way, or they want the Go-Betweens dead
so that the Protector has no link to the village. You know that I came here to
ask for your hand, but do you know why?”

“I am to thwart an assassination
attempt on your life,” she says.

“This all fits,” I say with a
nod. “Why was the crown not informed of this?”

“You’d have to ask the high
priest,” she says. “He is the likeliest candidate for laying the spell against
me. And he should have told you.”

“I will speak to him, but it
doesn’t do to disparage him until we know the facts,” I remind her. “He is a
highly respected member of the priesthood and has served admirably for many
cycles. It’s not your place to decide these things.”

“Is that because I’m a woman, or
because I’m untouchable, or because I’m simply not as smart as you? I’m only
repeating the facts.”

I lean back as though she slapped
me. No woman has ever spoken to me thusly.

“Listen well, Prince Kai. I
understand why you came here — you do not want to die. I do not wish for your
death, but I am my own person. I must make this decision as a free person. Of
course, you can try to force me, but I believe you need my cooperation. If I
lie down on my bed and refuse to get up, there’s little chance I’ll be doing
any anti-assassination-ing. So you need to hear me out.”

I’m so caught off guard by this
tirade that I can only nod.

“I am in love with Maja. We fell
in love, and he asked for my hand, and I gave him my pledge. I cannot turn my
back on that without a very good reason.

“Saving you and the kingdom is a
good reason, but I require certain stipulations. One—”

“Wait,” I interrupt. “You’re
planning on marrying the Protector? He’s not even human!”

Nilaruna narrows her eyes at me.
“Of course he’s human. He has other forms, true, but we can deal with that.”

“Is his marriage even allowed? He
has duties to the kingdom!”

“Ah,” she says. “Perhaps, then,
the future king should not marry. He has the greatest duty of all.”

I sigh. Best not to get into
arguments with this one.

“So as I was saying, I’m
considering your proposal, but I have requirements. One, no harm will come to
Maja. His curse must be modified to allow him freedom of movement, anywhere in
the kingdom. He cannot properly protect himself if he’s stuck on his land.”

“I would agree to that,” I say,
“but I do not have the power to see it through. Only one of the gods can alter
his curse.”

“Then you must find one who can
do it and start negotiating.”

I almost crack a smile, but I
catch myself. “What else?”

“This will be a marriage in name
only. I will not love you, because I will not betray Maja. I will not bed you.
And you must be faithful to me while we are married.”

The thought of bedding an
untouchable has never occurred to me. But just hours ago I was envisioning a
love connection with my new bride.

Love…love is the least of my
worries here. At least Nilaruna is articulate and smart. And audacious. But
she’s not the shy, unassuming, traditional woman I can easily manipulate. In
fact, since the moment we arrived, she has done all the manipulating!

“Unacceptable,” I say. “I am a
man. I can be faithful, and I would wish fidelity for my marriage, but you are
tying my hands.”

“You…you’d actually want to bed
me?”

I rub my chin thoughtfully. This
is the first time I’ve had Nilaruna off balance this entire conversation.

“Husbands usually bed their
wives, Nilaruna.”

Without any warning, she rips the
veil off her head.

I stare. Then I gulp.

Holy hells, this girl looks like
she was used as a human torch!

I swallow hard. “You were not
born this way, you know. Your scars are fierce, to be sure, but they signify
great…great courage and strength.”

She holds out her right hand. “I
used to play the flute. I was quite good. Look at these fingers. Long and
slender. They were made for playing music.”

Her hand is beautiful. It’s not
like the hands of women I’m used to seeing every day — the nails are
short and unpainted, she has some dirt beneath them, from her gardening, I
assume — but it is shapely and feminine.

Then she holds out her left.
“Look at this hand. Imagine me touching you with it. Imagine the rough surface,
almost like sand. I do not have a gentle touch.” She slowly reaches for my
hand. I sit frozen, watching the misshapen thing creep toward me.

At the last minute, I crack. My
hand flies to my hair.

“See?” she says, and there’s not
a trace of censure in her voice. But there is a tone of sadness. “Maja is the
only one who does not make me feel like a monster. He welcomes my touch, seeks it
out, even. And I do not blame you. Were our positions reversed, I do not know
if I’d want to touch me, either.”

“I can touch you,” I say. I pat
her scarred hand gently. “See?”

She smiles sadly. “I practically
had to dare you, Prince Kai. And it’s a moot issue, because as I said, I will
not betray Maja.”

“So we cannot work something out
between us, and yet I cannot stray. Seems a bit one-sided.”

“I will not stray, either,” she
says. “And I could. Isn’t the future queen free to bed whoever she likes?”

I smile. “That’s an old custom,
and one not practiced for hundreds of cycles.”

“How do you know?” she says.
“Have all the past queens kept a journal of their lovers? Are there songs sung
about them? Trust me, even if it’s within the law, I bet few queens would
flaunt their lovers in front of their families.”

“Probably true,” I say. “So we
must be faithful to our wedding vows. And we must never touch.”

She smiles, and the scar tissue
on the side of her mouth turns white. It looks like it hurts.

“I suppose you could give me a
hug,” she says. “Say, if I were upset about something. And if I tripped, as I’m
wont to do because my left leg doesn’t move very well, you could help me up. I
would appreciate that.”

I laugh. “If I have some horse
hair stuck to my breeches, I will allow you to brush it off.”

She waves her melted hand in the
air. “No. You have servants for that kind of thing. I will be a princess.”

“You will soon be a queen,” I
say.

Nilaruna cocks her head. “Are
your parents ill?”

I take a deep breath. “Shiva says
my father will be assassinated before this cycle ends. And my mother, yes, she
is ill. She doesn’t have long to live.”

Nilaruna grabs my hand without
thinking about it, and this time, I let her. “Oh, your highness, I’m so sorry.
There are no words.” She squeezes tight.

“Thank you,” I say. “Yes, it’s a
difficult time. Horrible things are happening on every front. I need something
to go right. I need you to say yes to our marriage.”

Nilaruna gives my hand one more
gentle squeeze and pulls away from me. “My prince, Shiva said…he made it quite
clear…do you know how our marriage will end?”

She turns her head and gives me
her profile, the healthy one. She focuses on me with a bright green eye. A
stunning eye. An eye that seems to read even my innermost thoughts.

“Shiva told you of your fate, and
yet you are still sitting here speaking with me?”

Nilaruna sighs. “I never thought
I’d have a happy life, nor a long one. When I volunteered to be the Go-Between,
I knew about the other girls’ deaths. I knew that was probably my fate. But I
also didn’t have a purpose for my death, and that troubled me. This would at
least give my life some meaning.”

We joked about touching one
another, but the conclusion, it seemed to me, was that it wouldn’t happen. Not
on purpose anyway.

But I do it without thinking.

I grab Nilaruna’s shoulders and
shake her. “I will not let you die, do you hear me? Not on my watch. There is
danger, and there is risk, but I vow to you, Nilaruna Nandal, that if there is
still breath in my lungs, I will return you to your beloved.”